This is the
first time the Kent Open has been held at the Martial Arts Club although the
Martial Arts Club is not that big the numbers attending Martial Arts events have
dropped significantly so with SMAC offering the Venue free of charge, the
organisers the Warriors Grappling Academy which is based at SMAC took advantage
of the offer

The event
was Children and Adults and attracted competitors from afar field as Mersey side
and Hampshire as well as competitors from Kent and London, also entered we had a
Latvian National Champion who now lives in Maidstone sadly in his first match he
broke his hand. Competition was in Sambo this is a Jacket Wrestling Style from
Russia and SportCombatSombo which is a mixture of striking and grappling wearing
a jackets

Children
were not allowed to enter the SportCombatSombo but were well represented in the
Sambo with even girls participating

Many people
mistakenly think Sambo is another form of Judo, this is far from the truth a lot
of Judo players like Sambo because the rules are so easy to understand and there
very few restrictions. For the first time in many years we actually had girls
competing they were very young but enjoyed the event. Best Boys match of the day
was between two Warriors Fighter Lewis Clarke and Richard Seaman the match went
from player to player throughout the fight with Richard winning with just a 2
point margin. Danny Carrott won his weight in typical style, revenge fight
between Jamie Mazetti Warriors and Kieran Daniels Spitfire was the match to
watch. Last time these two met 17 year old Jamie got the better of Kieran but
things were to change in this event. Kieran has superb techniques but lacks
fitness and in the opening minute of the match he caught Jamie with a nice
counter throw he the built on this to win the Match after the raised arm he sunk
to the floor and crawled of.

Sambo
Player of the day was 13 year old Sonny Tappin who is quite big for his age so
coach John Clarke decided to try him in the Adult class to reach the final he
had to beat fully grown men a remarkable achievement.

The
SportCombatSombo event was well received with the best match being between Danny
Carrott and Tom Richardson RAFUK . SportCombatSombo is a mixture of Grappling
and Striking. Tom a very dynamic striker used all his attributes to beat Danny
with strikes but Danny’s superior Throwing skills gave him the win

RAFUK gave
a demonstration of storm Fighting and belt Wrestling which was very well
received